Finally, we are in the middle of the best month of the year: March. As always, there have been countless amazing games and we have gotten to see almost all of the nation’s best players hoop thus far. Not to mention, the coaching carousel has already taken its course, whether it’s Providence hiring USF’s Brian Hodgson, Gerry McNamara returning home to Syracuse or one of the best jobs in the sport opening up at UNC. But the tournament is the real focus this time of year. Here are the most important storylines from the first weekend.
The first No. 1 seed to fall
A Final Four consisting entirely of No. 1 seeds is not a pattern, it seems (thankfully). The top seed in the West and the reigning champions, the Florida Gators, fell in the round of 32 to the No. 9 seed Iowa Hawkeyes, in one of the best battles we have seen to this point. Even in an off game for Bennett Stirtz, this Iowa squad went toe-to-toe with one of the hottest teams in the country, capping it off with a game-winning 3-pointer by Alvaro Folgueiras, followed by a Xavian Lee turnover to end the game. While this team was projected to earn a bid for most of the season, they lacked strong wins in the Big Ten, but that didn’t seem to matter. In Ben McCollum’s first year in the Power Five, he will be playing in the Sweet 16. Safe to say, Iowa is happy with that hire.
Zero mid-majors in the second weekend, again
Going back to the No. 1 seed dominance of last year’s tournament, there does seem to be a lack of mid-major competition in this year’s March Madness as well. This marks the second year in a row that zero mid-major schools have reached the Sweet 16. As you would expect, most people are reasonably tying this back to the expansion of NIL in college sports. Arizona’s Tommy Lloyd said that “once finances become part of it, there’s going to be a breaking point for some of the lesser programs that just don’t have the finances,” and it seems like we are getting closer to that point. That being said, we do have a double-digit seed still playing in Texas and a few other lower seeds, so plenty of upsets could still be on the way. And we can’t forget about High Point’s absurd performance to beat Wisconsin. Still, the NCAA needs to do something to even the playing field, because who wants March without Cinderellas?
The Cornhuskers make history
In a storybook year for Nebraska, they were finally able to claim the school’s first-ever NCAA tournament win in men’s basketball. After eight previous bids to the postseason, the Cornhuskers finally got one, but they didn’t stop there. Fred Hoiberg’s squad followed up their dominant victory over Troy in the first round with a nail-biter win against a strong Vanderbilt team. Even as the higher seed, they were not favored in this game, and honestly, I didn’t see their win coming. They looked the part, though, and with their favorable matchup against No. 9 seed Iowa, they could very well be playing for a chance to go to the Final Four on Saturday.
